A visit Thursday to Tattnall County by the board that oversees Georgia's prisons further reminded everyone of the need to get staff numbers back where they want them. They've see a drop in recent years, but they want to hire and retain more correctional officers to help get the ratio of officers to inmates closer to where they want it to maintain safety and security inside Georgia's prisons.

“If you go back to 2009 to 2016, and track the number of officers that we're losing, that's gone up every year,” said Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Homer Bryson.

The commissioner now feels optimistic they'll be able to bring people and keep them.

“We've been able to put more money into salaries and that's helping, but we're also hopeful with more money in the budget coming up we'll be more competitive in the market and be able to address those issues,” said Bryson.